Who will educate the youths?

[BlackCryptoKnight]

Who will educate the youths? How will the nation prevent the next generations from falling by the wayside and turning to the dark side?


No place for almost 3,000 students

Only 62 per cent who sat Grade Nine Achievement Test get scholarships to high schools

BY VIVIENNE GREEN-EVANS Observer staff reporter
Monday, August 16, 2004

NEARLY 3,000 students, most of them 15 year-olds, who failed May's Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT) may be unable to find a place in high school when schools reopen next month.

The education ministry said that 2,978 of the 9,361 students who sat the exam were not given a high school place, continuing last year's trend when 3,193 students failed to gain a place in high school and were forced to seek their own placement.

No place for almost 3000 students (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20040815T220000-0500_64586_OBS_NO_PLACE_FOR_ALMOST_______STUDENTS. asp)

[Chris]

I saw this news item and bwoy it ruff. If we can't get 38% of our young people into high school what will become of them? The majority can't afford private tuition. It looks like the whole education system is failing at the pre-high school level, so early in their educational lives :(

[Chicokid]

Yup..we got a similiar thing here too. It's called "Common Entrance" exams where students who are 11-14 years in the sixth Grade in primary schools do an exam to enter secondary schools. The students are allowed five choices of the secondary schools they wanna go to. Only the top best students are choosen overall. The system is done using the highest point and the lowest point and finding a cut off point based on the number of students that can be accomodated in secondary schools at once. The problems isn't really that the students "fail", its just there isn't enough schools to put them in.

The problem can be solved a bit if the Government decides to build more secondary schools. If there are enough schools, then there won't be any children missing the opportunity of secondary education. Instead an exam can be choosen just to place students in secondary schools by the choices of schools they have.

[Greatis]

high school education is now outdated. gone are the days when you could leave high school with 6 subjects and get a decent good paying job... So why is the government allowing these children to fall by the way side...

It is easy to blame the government but some parents and gaurdians are to blame too... :icon_neut

[BlackCryptoKnight]

Yup..we got a similiar thing here too. It's called "Common Entrance" exams where students who are 11-14 years in the sixth Grade in primary schools do an exam to enter secondary schools. The students are allowed five choices of the secondary schools they wanna go to. Only the top best students are choosen overall. The system is done using the highest point and the lowest point and finding a cut off point based on the number of students that can be accomodated in secondary schools at once. The problems isn't really that the students "fail", its just there isn't enough schools to put them in.

The problem can be solved a bit if the Government decides to build more secondary schools. If there are enough schools, then there won't be any children missing the opportunity of secondary education. Instead an exam can be choosen just to place students in secondary schools by the choices of schools they have.

We used to have the Common Entrance exams. Then that was replaced by the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

For there to be more schools, there needs to be money to build and maintain them. Where's that money gonna come from?

[Arch_Angel]

But the government is building new secondary schools. Quite a few actually. They actually showed picutres of the new school being built in the observer the other day.
38% is a whole lot.

[BlackCryptoKnight]

But the government is building new secondary schools. Quite a few actually. They actually showed picutres of the new school being built in the observer the other day.
38% is a whole lot.

Do we have the money to pay the teachers properly? Do we have enough teachers?

[Arch_Angel]

You know we don't. :)
You soon hear they asking for teachers to volunteer to teach children in the secondary schools. :(

[BlackCryptoKnight]

You know we don't. :)
You soon hear they asking for teachers to volunteer to teach children in the secondary schools. :(

What about all those teachers that had visa troubles in the US? Is the govt. really not gonna take them back?

[Cocoa]

I am on the road to teaching here. And although I would love to teach in Ja, I can't.

Yes I recognise that everywhere even here, needs more teachers. And teachers need more money too. But the issue at hand is who will teach them? I will!

How will these youths get a chance in life if the schools are rejecting them? Who will educate the men and women of our future? What is the problem here? Lack of teachers, placement or money?
Why can't we educate them? Why must they sit down and settle for jobs on the side without advancing...why?
This one thread just messed up my good mood. I feel so sorry for them.
>>Who would teach if we don't have anyone to learn?>>

[BlackCryptoKnight]

Then people wonder why there's a crime problem... :eusa_thin

[BlackCryptoKnight]

This grade nine calamity

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Nearly 3,000 more young Jamaicans, most of them males in the 15-year-old bracket, are set to fall between the cracks.

They are the bunch of students who did not gain places in high schools after last May's Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT), which is designed to give a sort of second chance to those students who were deemed not to have made the cut in the grade six test to enter secondary schools.

This matter is worrying at several levels. Not least of these are the social implications.

It is reasonable to assume that the bulk of those students who do not find school places will also not find jobs. They will mostly hang around their communities, at the street corners, progressively losing self-esteem and increasingly becoming candidates for anti-social behaviour.

Read the full editorial in the Jamaica Observer (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20040816T230000-0500_64659_OBS_THIS_GRADE_NINE_CALAMITY.asp)

[Cocoa]

We know that there are many serious problems in the education system, but it is critical that the education ministry and the government unveil solutions to deal urgently with problems such as highlighted by this GNAT issue.

Idle 15-year-olds with guns can cause a lot of mayhem.So true. I guess that is one of the solutions to the problem. Urgent help needed too.

Like you said BCk, idle hands are the devils work.

[sweet jamaican]

hEY i WAS READING YOUR FORUM ABOUT HOW THEY ALWYS BLAME THE GOVERMENT FOR EVERYTHING THAT OUR KIDS DO AND AS A PARENT i DO BELIEVE THAT WE NEED TO TAKE SOME OF THE RESPONSIBILITY TOO, AS A PARENT